Famous Paintings: Garden of Earthly Delights Famous Paintings: Garden of Earthly Delights Tweet Garden of Earthly Delights is a series of superlatives: the best-known work of Hieronymous Bosch (ca. 1450-1516), one of the most famous paintings in Western art history, and one of the most influential, inspirational works for Surrealist paint ers of the 20th century. Hieronymus Bosch (also spelled Jheronimus Bos) was born Jerome van Aeken in the small Netherland town of 's-Hertogenbosch, from which his name is derived. A member of the third generation of a family of painters, Hieronymus Bosch was an orthodox Catholic whose style was anything but orthodox -- over five centuries later, it remains baffling how Bosch crafted a style so remote from the leading Netherlandish painters of his time, Jan van Eyck (ca. 1370/90-1441) and Rogier van der Weyden (ca. 1400-1464).

Forty Hieronymous Bosch paintings are known to exist; none is dated, and only seven, including Garden of Earthly Delights, are signed. Hieronymous Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights, ca. 1500-1505. Oil and grisaille on wooden panel. Center panel is 7'2 1/2" x 6'4 3/4". Each wing is 7'2 1/2" x 3'2". Museo del Prado, Madrid. Although painted in the triptych format often used for altarpieces, Garden of Earthly Delights is clearly a secular work - the imagery is (and remains) inappropriate for religious settings. When the wings of the triptych are closed (see bottom left), it shows a massive sphere depicting the world on the third day of Creation, before life began. When opened, though, Garden of Earthly Delights is a dizzying, dazzling array of enigmatic and provocative scenes best contemplated through the beliefs of its creator. Hieronymus Bosch was a fundamentalist moralist who believed that mankind has been flawed and damned since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. Hieronymous Bosch.

Garden of Earthly Delights, ca. 1500-1505. Oil and grisaille on wooden panel. Left wing. 7' 2 1/2" x 3'2". Museo del Prado, Madrid. Let's examine each of the three panels. Left Wing Here, Hieronymus Bosch portrays his vision of Paradise and the Garden of Eden on the last day of Creation. From top to bottom, one sees the first animals God fashioned and in the center, the Fountain of Life. Eve has just been created from Adam's rib; they are surrounded by a verdant landscape populated by imaginary and real animals including unicorns, giraffes and a three-headed bird, lingering by the pool. Half way down on the right is the Tree of Knowledge, with a snake coiled around its trunk; this was the sole source of forbidden fruit in a landscape laden with other varieties. Note the hints of dissonance, even in Paradise: in the foreground, animals prey upon and devour those who are smaller and weaker. Central Panel This panel in Garden of Earthly Delights is indisputably the most cryptic and baffling. Hieronymous Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights, ca.

1500-1505. Oil and grisaille on wooden panel. Central panel. 7' 2 1/2" x 6'4 3/4". Museo del Prado, Madrid. The world’s four rivers are on the horizon, grounding this scene on Earth; note how the landscape is continuous across all panels of the triptych. The overarching theme appears to be hedonism, especially the seeking and satisfaction of sexual desires. In the center is the Bath of Venus, a pool filled with naked, bathing women. Encircling them is a procession of naked men and women who are gawking shamelessly while astride deer, camels, unicorns and horses. In medieval times, the phrase “riding a horse” was a metaphor for having sexual relations, while the “bath of Venus” referred to being in love. Overlooking the Bath of Venus is a fantastic castle-like tower housing five turrets. Throughout, miniature, naked humans frolic, kiss and cavort among themselves and with marine animals, gigantic birds and flowers. The landscape is populated by enormous strawberries and succulent grapes, some of which are being plucked and devoured.

Imaginary beasts wander around, seemingly oblivious to the carnality around them. In the bottom right corner are the sole clothed figures; they are Adam and Eve, seemingly hiding from the chaos around them. Right Wing The rampant imagination of Hieronymous Bosch is on full display in this vision of the land of the damned. This depiction of an inferno – perhaps Hell itself – shows tiny humans receiving punishments and tortures matching their sins; they suffer below a sky filled with fire and brimstone. Hieronymous Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights, ca. 1500-1505. Oil and grisaille on wooden panel. Right wing. 7' 2 1/2" x 3'2". Museo del Prado, Madrid. About mid-ground on the far right, for instance, is a rodent-bird-like creature sitting in an elevated chair and sporting a cauldron as its cap (see bottom right); it devours sinners, and later expels their remains into a pit of human waste and vomit. Such was the fate of those committing the sin of gluttony.

Those who indulged the pleasures of the flesh are impaled and crucified by musical instruments, classical symbols for lust and love. Soldiers are impaled on spears; one in armor is consumed by a dragon. All are suffering and are on the brink of death, but will suffer eternally because no one dies in Hell. In the center is an off-white-broken-eggshell monster with a hauntingly evil human face and stubby legs; he appears to be the ringmaster orchestrating the suffering of these sinners. Interpretations of Garden of Earthly Delights The lack of information about Bosch's life has done nothing but fuel speculation about the meaning of Garden of Earthly Delights. To the extent that one can interpret Hieronymous Bosch at face value, Garden of Earthly Delights seems to be about the perils of hedonism and most particularly, the sin of lust. Given that Bosch was a fundamentalist moralist, this is one compelling interpretation. Hieronymous Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights, ca. 1500-1505. Oil and grisaille on wooden panel. Detail of right wing. 7' 2 1/2" x 3'2".

Museo del Prado, Madrid. But various other interpretations abound. Some consider Bosch a heretic guilty of horrific immorality, while others believe that the meaning of Garden of Earthly Delights was known only to the elite of Bosch's era. Or that Hieronymous Bosch belonged to a secret sect of atheistic nudists. A more recent interpretation is that Hieronymus Bosch, like Leonardo da Vinci, blended science and piety in his paintings. In medieval times, the practice of science was considered a means of attaining salvation; alchemy, a precursor to chemistry, strove to transform matter through distillative processes into a perfect form, with divine intervention. Considering the bizarrely shaped vessel-objects in all panels of the Garden, it is plausible that they are flasks and funnels used in the distillation processes of alchemy. Add that to the prevalent fear in 1500 that the world was coming to an end, as detailed in the Book of Revelation, and you have another interpretation: Bosch believed that alchemy could "distill" the human race back to the innocence of Adam and Eve. Hieronymous Bosch. Garden of Earthly Delights, ca. 1500-1505.

Oil and grisaille on wooden panel. Closed view. 7' 2 1/2" x 6'4 3/4". Museo del Prado, Madrid. What is certain about Garden of Earthly Delights is this: although its enigmas have fascinated viewers (and baffled art historians) for over five centuries, definitive answers are unlikely to ever be known. Was Hieronymus Bosch such a genius that he intended this? Which interpretation of Garden of Earthly Delights do you find most persuasive? UPDATE: In May 2015, the Museum of Royal Collections, also in Madrid, demanded that the Prado give it Garden of Earthly Delights and Rogier van der Weyden's Descent from the Cross, citing their royal provenance. Because these two famous paintings are the top draws at the Prado... this promises drama. Stay tuned! Brian, What an excellent point linking "Garden" with Dante. In his "Inferno" or underworld, sinners similarly received punishment that "fit" the sin -- a fortune teller in Dante's Inferno was punished by rotating his head backwards so that he could no longer look ahead.

Mark Byrne I like the comparison with Dante but I wonder; the 1500’s were a terrible time with very short lifespans. Could it be as simple as be human, enjoy your life but be prepared to accept the possible consequences of the mistakes you made in your life? Mildred Wow! It seems to be a good reminder to all the people on earth.His work is worth spreading. I have to share it to my students. h2g2 - The Garden of Earthly Delights - A Painting By Hieronymous Bosch - Edited Entry 2 Conversations A Painting By Hieronymous Bosch The Garden of Earthly Delights was painted by Hieronymus Bosch in around 1505. The exact date is unknown because Bosch never dated any of his pieces. It is currently displayed in the Prado Museum, Madrid . A very striking painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights was very unusual for its time. In the 1500s, most pieces depicted Bible stories and consisted of a few very realistic and detailed characters, unlike this painting, which portrays hundreds of different people and dozens of 'monsters' all in perfect, but sometimes simplistic, form.

This famous and surrealistic piece takes the form of a triptych - a painting that has three side-by-side panels or canvases. It usually has three hinged sections; the two outer parts can be folded inward covering the entire work. This is very typical of the time; many triptychs were created for display in churches as altarpieces. In itself, The Garden of Earthly Delights is a very remarkable and revolutionary piece: nothing like it had ever been seen before. There are few pieces like it in style and very few like it in stature. It opened the gateway for new ideas and styles to come through. However, at the time, Bosch faced much controversy because of this work, and for quite a while after his death he was known as 'The inventor of monsters and chimeras'. At first, Bosch's paintings were taken seriously by many, but as time passed people started to place his pieces in the context of their own time instead of remembering them as revolutionary forms of art. They saw his depictions of monsters and chimeras as conventional, instead of as interesting, fresh and innovative. Many people had drawn inspiration from his style and created conventional imitations, so his pieces no longer stood out.

The Garden of Earthly Delights The Garden of Earthly Delights is a very complicated piece and almost everyone has a different opinion about its cultural symbols and references to great works of literature. To try to understand it fully, each section of the piece must be discussed in turn. Outer Wings The fantastic detail on the reverse of the outer wings in subdued tones of grey with tints of green represents the world on the third day of creation. The world appears as a flat disc covered by a spherical atmosphere and enclosed by the heavens. This was probably a very popular perception of Earth at the time. This image of the Earth on the third day of creation is itself very bizarre. The mist reveals a looming heaven and a landscape populated with half-mineral and half-vegetable objects. Though the third day of creation is considered to be a time when the world was still pure, it has an evil, menacing feel about it. In the top-left of the image is God , holding a book. This element links with the Latin words at the top of the piece, which translate as 'For he spake and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast' (Psalms 33:9).

This creates an image of a passive God, according to the traditional idea that God created the world through words and not actions. In this way it is the opposite of the images Michelangelo painted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. While Michelangelo's God is vibrant, Bosch's seems more grandfatherly; while Michelangelo's God is impressive and immediately draws the viewer's eye, Bosch's God subtly blends into the picture. This difference in images of God could show their differing opinions on God. Equally, this could show that although Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights is externally very unusual, the ideas behind it were orthodox for the time. First Panel In contrast with the subdued tones on the outside, the inside bursts with a startling amount of colour. On the left-hand panel there is an antediluvian landscape, but unlike in the 'Haywain' (another painting by Bosch) where we see the temptation and expulsion of Adam and Eve, in this image we see God uniting Adam and Eve. What is unusual about God in this image is that he is no longer an old being but a more youthful deity; this could be Him as Christ, the second member of the trinity. Another significant fact is that Adam and Eve are not touching.

This is quite normal for paintings of Adam and Eve at that time; Albrecht Durer painted them on separate panels in 1504. Although we know that the purpose of Adam and Eve was to 'Be fruitful and multiply' (Genesis 1:28), painters at the time did not want to imply that there was any sexual attraction between them. Bosch's interpretation follows this convention as well. The most significant image in this section is the eye-catching fountain in the centre and the owl in the centre of the fountain. The owl, commonly regarded as a symbol of wisdom, can represent several cynical ideas in Christian imagery. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Romans 1:22-23 The owl can represent those who, preferring darkness to light (like the owl), reject Jesus and God; this could be significant since Adam and Eve go on to reject God by eating the forbidden fruit.

More likely, the owl here is viewed as a robber-bird, which stands for foolishness, blindness (as he cannot see in light, or see the light of Christ) and a bird which accepts the fact that there is evil in the world and does nothing to prevent it. The owl's significance in this piece warns of the evil that is to come, as if the owl knows at the time. Additionally, the fact that the owl is often regarded as a bird with psychic abilities should not go unnoticed here. Another significant section of this piece is the pool to the left of the fountain, which contains many different amazing animals, the most significant of which is the unicorn. In Christianity, the unicorn symbolises chastity. In the Age of Faith, it was common for a unicorn and virgin to be pictured together. This image shows us that Bosch, although he creates a very negative picture of humanity, provides elements of hope in the first panel. Central Panel The central panel is perhaps the most difficult to understand: is it meant to be a 'garden of earthly delights', or is it a representation of the sins that came about due to Adam and Eve's sins - sins that will result in the fate represented on the third panel?

Whichever way we interpret it, we can't deny that it is bursting with colour and imagery, not all of which is easy to comprehend. The setting for the centre panel is a conventional love garden. A conventional love garden is a garden with flowers, singing birds and a fountain in the centre where lovers gather to stroll or sing. The fountain is usually made out of gold and gems. The most famous description is in The Romance of the Rose a very long - and in its time, famous - allegorical poem about love, which states: When I had gone a little further, I saw a large and extensive garden, Entirely surrounded by a high, crenulated wall, Which was decorated on the outside with paintings and carved with many rich inscriptions. Although Bosch's representation contains the essence of such a love garden it differs in many respects. Firstly, the people in Bosch's painting are far more open and frivolous about their relationships, whereas at that time it was considered bad taste to be so obvious. Secondly, the fountains were usually made of gold and gems, while Bosch's are clearly made of ivory and horns. This may be because Virgil expressed the idea that true dreams are made of ivory and horns in many of his works.

Virgil's poems also frequently play host to the idea of yielding to love: Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love. - Eclogue X - Gallus Many doubt that Bosch intentionally created these fountains in accordance with Virgil's writing, but perhaps these works contributed subconsciously. Since the Earth in this panel is fully populated, it suggests that it is a time following the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden. This idea is supported by a couple in the cave in the left-hand corner of the painting that may be Adam and Eve from the first panel. However it is unknown whether it is in a time before or after the Great Flood; some believe the man behind Adam is Noah, suggesting either a time before the great flood, or after, when mankind has reverted to their original ways. The second idea seems more likely because of the hell ish scene in the last panel. Either way, this is clearly a time when God has been forgotten: men and women are frolicking about, the young men and women are mainly interested in kissing , embracing and stroking one another.

It is notable that there are no children in this image; this demonstrates that they are going directly against God's wishes of 'Be fruitful and multiply' (Genesis 1:28). Man has abandoned heavenly paradise for a garden of earthly delights. It is believed that the enormous quantities of fruit in this image are ironic; Bosch may have meant it as a pun on God's words. Certainly 'to pluck fruit' in Bosch's time was a euphemism for the sexual act. Another irony is that it was the fruit from the tree of knowledge that brought the fall of man. The skin of fruit also bears its own connotations: in Dutch the rind of a piece of fruit was called the 'schil', which also meant controversy. Furthermore, to be in a 'schel' was to be in a struggle with an opponent or to engage in the conflict of love. Since many of the couples are inside the peel of giant fruit, that may be the implication. The main theme in this central panel is that of lust as the root of all evil. This theme is echoed through the images in the centre of the panel.

There are three lakes: the front and back lakes contain both men and women, and the central lake contains only women, while men ride around it. This was a traditional way of showing the power of women, though usually it was portrayed with one woman in the centre of a circle of admirers. The men riding on animals are symbolic because animals symbolise the baser urges of mankind. Furthermore, a man riding was a metaphor for the sexual act. This scene also harks back to Eve, since one of the women is already climbing out of the pool and tempting the men - demonstrating that it was woman who took the lead in sin. However, with Bosch nothing is simple: every theory has its contradiction. Wilhelm Fraenger views the work more positively than other critics. He states that the left-hand panel is not depicting the fall of man due to Eve's tempting but rather God uniting man and woman.

His interpretation of the second panel is somewhat different: he claims the people in the second panel were Adamites, a cult that wished to return to the innocence of Adam and Eve before the fall: ...are peacefully frolicking about the tranquil garden in vegetative innocence, at one with animals and plants and the sexuality that inspires them seems to be pure joy, pure bliss. This theory is very unusual, but may be based on Fraenger's theory that Bosch belonged to the Adamites, and maybe The Garden of Earthly Delights is where he supports this theory. Final Panel The image of hell on the right-hand panel is one of Bosch's most violent hells, contrasting with one of Bosch's lushest paradises, which precedes it. This insinuates that the more sinful happiness people enjoy in their lifetime, the worse the experience will be afterwards. In Bosch's less violent hells the buildings burn; here they seem to explode. From the fires to the icy lakes, this is a depiction of extremes. The world has been turned upside down. Normal objects have grown to enormous proportions. In the central lake water is being turned to blood, and massive musical instruments are torturing their victims.

Bosch's use of imagery helps the viewer realise how horrifying this scene actually is - in particular, his use of musical instruments as implements of torture. In Bosch's time, musical instruments were not only used to play music, but also played a role in literature and art. Different instruments have different connotations: The pink bagpipe in the centre above the tree-man has several connotations: the bagpipe was considered a very aggressive instrument because of the loud sound it makes, and may represent those that play it who are now being punished in this hell. The bagpipe was also a symbol of the male sex organ. The pommer is an early form of the oboe. It played a sharp sound and was common in Bosch's time. The pommer was a phallic symbol, a connotation expressed in this painting. Below the pommer is a drum with a man trapped inside. The drum symbolises victory over the lust in the world, so it seems right that the drum traps inside it a lustful man. Currently, the harp is a symbol often linked with royalty and noble, but here it is torturing a man caught up in its strings.

In the past the harp was a symbol of the female sex organ, and many Dutch sayings refer to this symbolism. The lute was used very often in medieval art to represent music, and in many paintings the angels played it. However, here Bosch is drawing on another symbolic connotation of the lute, which is that of seduction. Here the lute is overcoming people with pain. Somewhat ironically, lust was also known as 'music of the flesh'. Therefore the musical instruments here suggest that the victims are paying for their lust in their previous life. Bosch is also implying that things that cause people pleasure in life, like musical instruments, can and will cause them pain later on. The people are not paying only for their lustfulness but also for all manner of sins: idleness is illustrated by the man in his bed being looked upon by demons. The punishment for gluttony is illustrated by the man being forced to vomit his food, and in the centre of the tree-man, an image of a tavern illustrates the sin of gambling. Several people around the panel are guilty of the sin of anger.

In this hell normal relationships are being turned upside down: the hunters have become the hunted and the animals that are hunting them are grotesque. The animals within this piece are some of Bosch's greatest creations. Visual representations of man's faults are illustrated in creatures of all shapes and sizes, from rabbits to gnomes. The illustration of monsters was not unusual in Bosch's time; several books were written describing actual or fictional animals, and many people took inspiration from these books, as Bosch likely did. One interesting creature is the bird in the left-hand corner, very similar in appearance to the Egyptian God Horus. Horus, a man with a head of a falcon, was one of the oldest gods in Egyptian culture. Horus was the God who saw all with sharp eyes, and here he is punishing those he has seen sinning. In this piece, the bird represents the devil torturing souls. The devil eats his victims and excretes them into a pit below his throne. The image of the devil as a beast that sits on a throne is a direct lift from The Vision of Tundale by St Vincent of Beauvais: 'Bestia sedebat super stagnum'. This poem lists many different tortures in hell and all the various punishments.

As usual for this piece, the most important feature is in the centre; two boats support a pair of rotting tree trunks, which in turn hold up the egg-shaped torso of the tree-man. This tree-man is so important to Bosch that he drew a pen drawing of his idea before he started the painting. The face of this man glances back as if to look the viewer directly in the eye. It is unclear if this tree-man is a monster or a victim like the other people in this gruesome depiction of hell. Many people believe that this face is Bosch's warning to the viewer, a moral guide trying to lead the viewer onto a path free of sin. Also possible is that Bosch is implying that even he himself will have to endure the travails of hell because he was one of the sinners in the central panel, a theory which concurs with Wilhelm's idea that Bosch was an Adamite. With all the symbolism entwined in the surreal Garden of Earthly Delights, it is difficult to understand Bosch's true meanings. Did he mean to pre-date Freud and Dalì, or did he just express his thoughts on panels?

Even now, five hundred years after its painting, we do not understand all of the symbolism within The Garden of Earthly Delights; however, the one thing the viewers do know is that they do not want to sin like the people in the central panel if it means they will end up in the right-hand hell scene. Which was probably Bosch's intention. Art Through Time: A Global View - Garden of Earthly Delights Garden of Earthly Delights » Hieronymus Bosch (Netherlandish, ca. 1450–1516) Hieronymus Bosch, famous for his fantastical, often monstrous, hybrid creatures, might in some ways be seen as a forerunner of the Surrealists. However, while the Surrealists played in the realms of dreams and the unconscious, Bosch was steeped in the religiosity of his age and the worlds he conjured up demonstrated what were believed to be the very real, and sobering, consequences of earthly behavior. Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych, meaning that it consists of three parts—a central panel with one hinged wing on either side.

Closed, the triptych depicts a translucent sphere encompassing earth, sky, and sea. The scene, rendered in monochromatic shades of grey (a style known as grisaille), is thought by some to represent creation. Others have linked it to the great flood by which God cleanses the world at the time of Noah. The interior of the triptych is the subject of even greater contention. The wings of Bosch’s triptych open to reveal a colorful interior filled to the point of bursting with strange architecture, unnatural landforms, and all types of hybrid creatures. In the foreground of the left hand panel, God the Father stands between the naked figures of Adam and Eve, surrounded by various flora and fauna. This is, no doubt, the Garden of Eden, though the scene is not without a dark side. In the distance, an animal tears at the flesh of his prey while black birds circle around. The central panel of the triptych is the one from which the piece takes its current title. This “Garden of Earthly Delights” features hordes of nude men and women cavorting in a landscape that is home to enormous birds, oversized fruit, and bizarre vegetation.

The scene is lively, chaotic, and orgiastic in tone. Although the uninhibited behavior of the figures seems at first glance to be lascivious, in fact, it is ambiguous. Despite the many naked congregations and couples Bosch places in the image, there are no sexual acts explicitly portrayed. Scholars have debated the meaning of this central image, arguing that it represents a vision of innocent pleasure, a cauldron of sinful excess, and everything in between. The leftmost panel of the work is, paradoxically, the most disturbing and the least enigmatic. Here are depicted the horrors of Hell, a place where sinners are skewered by giant hares, tortured on oversized instruments, and ingested by a grotesque insect-like being, only to be excreted moments later. Whatever the meaning of the triptych as a whole, Bosch reminds the viewer that damnation is a very possible (perhaps the only possible) outcome in this corrupt world. Although The Garden of Earthly Delights takes a form frequently used for altarpieces in the sixteenth century, documentation suggests that it was housed in a secular context, probably commissioned by a wealthy patron.

Henry III of Nassau, a governor of the Habsburgs in the Netherlands, has been suggested as one potential owner. Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (article) | Khan Academy Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights Email “But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.” —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c.

1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado, Madrid) Deciphering the indecipherable To write about Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych, known to the modern age as The Garden of Earthly Delights, is to attempt to describe the indescribable and to decipher the indecipherable—an exercise in madness. Nonetheless, there are a few points that can be made with certainty before it all unravels. The painting was first described in 1517 by the Italian chronicler Antonio de Beatis, who saw it in the palace of the counts of Nassau in Brussels. It can therefore be considered a commissioned work. The fact that the counts were powerful political players in the Burgundian Netherlands made the palace a stage for important diplomatic receptions and the work must have caused something of a sensation with its viewing audience, since it was copied, both in painting and tapestry, after Bosch’s death in 1516. Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c.

1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delight s (outer panels), c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado, Madrid) We can assume, therefore, that Bosch’s bizarre lexicon of human congress must have held some appeal, or some meaning, for a contemporary audience. In a period marked by religious decline in Europe and, in the Netherlands, the first blush of capitalism following the abolition of the guilds, the work has often been interpreted as an admonition against fleshly and worldly indulgence, but that seems a rather prosaic purpose to assign to a highly idiosyncratic and expressively detailed tour-de-force. And, indeed, there is very little agreement as to the precise meaning of the work. It is a creation and damnation triptych, starting with Adam and Eve and ending with a highly imaginative through-the-looking glass kind of Hell. No one really knows why Bosch imagined the world in this particular way. Here’s what I think.

What concerned Bosch, in his triptych of creation, human futility and damnation (the Garden of Earthly Delights is a modern misnomer for the work), was the essentially comic ephemerality of human life. Allow me to explain. The Outer Panels Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) God (detail of outer panels) Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) When the triptych is in the closed position (above), the outer panels, painted in grisaille (monochrome), join to form a perfect sphere—a vision of a planet-shaped clear glass vessel half-filled with water, interpreted to be either the depiction of the Flood, or day three of God’s creation of the world (which has to do with the springing forth of flowers, plants and trees, in which case he’s guilty of heedless over-watering).

A tiny figure of God, holding an open book, is found in the uppermost left corner of the left panel, and the inscription that runs along the top of both panels can be translated to read “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm,” which is from Psalm 33.9. If one thinks of the outside panels as the end of the entire pictorial cycle, rather than its beginning, then this image could easily be a depiction of the Flood, sent by God to cleanse the earth after it was consumed by vice. Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Outer panels (detail), Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) This path towards vice is mapped in the inner panels of the triptych. The outer panels are therefore intended to provoke meditative purgation, a cleansing of the mind.

It should be pointed out that this work, like Bosch’s Hay Wain triptych (also framed by a creation and damnation scene), is a triptych only in form; neither depict the conventional arrangement of a tripartite altarpiece because their center panels do not include religious figures or even religious scenes. What Bosch seems to have invented is an entirely new form of secular triptych, one that functioned kind of like a Renaissance home theatre package for wealthy patrons. The First Panel: God Introduces Eve to Adam (and All Hell Breaks Loose) Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) The first panel depicts God, looking like a mad scientist in a landscape animated by vaguely alchemical vials and beakers, presiding over the introduction of Eve to Adam (which, in itself, is a rather rare subject).

Although they are precisely located in the centre foreground, in scale Adam and Eve—as well as God—are precisely as important as the other creatures in this paradisiacal garden, including an elephant, a giraffe (straight out of Piero de’ Cosimo) a unicorn and other more hybrid and less recognizable animals, along with birds, fish, other aquatic creations, snakes and insects. The introduction of woman to man, in this setting, is clearly intended to highlight not only God’s creativity but human procreative capacity. In the hierarchy of God’s handiwork, Adam and Eve represent his most daring achievement, as though after he’d made everything else he thought he needed to leave a signature on the world in which he could recognize himself. It’s a matter of conjecture, when one proceeds to the central panel, as to whether Bosch is saying that the creation of man, on whom God conferred free will, might have been a divine mistake. The Central Panel – People Nakedly Cavort (and All Hell Breaks Loose) This is the panel from which the title Garden of Earthly Delights was derived.

Here Bosch’s humans, the offspring of Adam and Eve, gambol freely in a surrealistic paradisiacal garden, appearing as mad manifestations of a whimsical creator—sensate cogs of nature alive in a larger, animate machine. It is a matter of divided opinion as to what, exactly, the humans are actually doing in this delightful, dense and nonsensical landscape, alive with a dizzying array of some of Bosch’s most delectable creatures and dotted with his alembic architecture. It is almost as though he imagined the world of creation as a terrific Willy Wonka series of machines with humans as their product. Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c.

1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Given Bosch’s emphasis on nude figures, some of which are engaged in amorous activities —although none in flagrante—this central scene has often been interpreted as a warning against lust, particularly in conjunction with the third panel, depicting Hell (the Spanish Hapsburgs, in fact, referred to the work as "La Lujuria" — lust). I wonder though. Bosch’s depiction of humans cavorting in the elemental world of God’s creation, seems, to me, less inculpatory than simply a commentary on the fact that there’s little to differentiate man from animals from plants. Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Central panel (detail), Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c.

1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Many figures appear in all sorts of chrysalis states, or inside eggs or shells, and are fed ripe berries by birds or strange hybrid creatures; in the middle-ground some kind of procession of men, riding on various animals and accompanied by birds, circles a small lake of bathing maidens. It’s true that some unlikely human orifices are stuffed with flowers, but there is no explicit sex in this panel—just a gluttonous consumption of varieties of berries that have, by some, been linked to the pervasively hallucinogenic atmosphere (magic berries instead of magic mushrooms). In the end, there is folly and there is much that is visceral, but there’s no real vice. Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c.

1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Instead, what Bosch appears to be doing is contemplating man’s place in the greater divine machine of nature. Maybe he’s saying, as Lucretius did, that all matter is made of atoms that come together for a time to form a sensible thing and, when that thing dies, those atoms return to their origins to reconfigure in some other form. This breaking and becoming is the nature of nature, and man in nature, is not differentiated by anything OTHER than his free will, his concern for his own behaviour. Our reason is our undoing. Every man’s hell is only what he can imagine, and Bosch was more imaginative than most. His was a highly singular and idiosyncratic talent, and Bosch was really no more a product of his own time than he would have been of any other time. However, his ability to visualize hallucinatory landscapes made him extremely popular, three centuries later, with surrealists like Salvador Dali, who was also a virtuoso imagineer of nightmarish other-worldly worlds. I would venture to guess that Lewis Carroll must also have been a fan.

The Third Panel – Finally, All Hell Breaks Loose Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Panel of hell (detail), Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Bosch saves the best for last. Earlier visions of Hell, if indeed that’s what Bosch intended here, are pretty tame in comparison to this. Against a backdrop of blackness, prison-like city walls are etched in inky silhouette against areas of flame and everywhere human bodies huddle in groups, amass in armies or are subject to strange tortures at the hands of oddly-clad executioners and animal-demons. Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Panel of hell (detail), Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c.

1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Dotted about are more crazy machine-like structures that seem designed to process human flesh. Some of these are strikingly disturbing. Near the center, a bird-like creature seated in a latrine chair, like a king on a throne, ingests humans and excretes them out again; nearby a wretched human is encouraged to vomit into a well in which other human faces swirl beneath the water. In general, the bodies purge themselves or are purged of demons, black birds, vomitus fluids, blood; as in any good Boschian world, bottoms continue to be prodded with various instruments. But the general emphasis is on purgation. Overall, there is a marked emphasis on musical instruments as symbols of evil distraction, the siren call of self-indulgence, and the large ears, which scuttle along the ground although pierced with a knife, are a powerful allusion to the deceptive lure of the senses.

In fact, many of the symbols and the tortures here are pretty standard in the catalogue of the Seven Deadly Sins, in which our senses deceive our thoughts into self-indulgent over-consumption. Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Panel of hell (detail), Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) One key element here, however, requires some explication—the central, Humpty-Dumpty-ish figure who gazes out of the scene, his cracked-shell body impaled on the limbs of a dead tree. The art historian Hans Belting thought this was a self-portrait of Bosch, and a lot of people believe this, but it’s impossible to verify. Still, it quite strikingly illustrates the presence of a controlling, human consciousness in the centre of all this tortured imagining. And this is where my interpretation parts ways with those who have come before.

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Panel of hell (detail), Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Because, while "Bosch’s" mind (if it is a self-portrait) might be distracted with thoughts of lust, symbolized by the bagpipe-like instrument balanced on his head (standard phallic Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1505, oil on panel, 220 x 390 cm (Prado) stand-in), within the hollow of his body, a tiny trio of figures sit at a table as though dining.

To me, these three figures are reminiscent of Genesis 18.2, in which God arrives at the door of Abraham, accompanied by two angels (all disguised as ordinary men) and Abraham, without question, offers them his humble hospitality. As his reward, God bestows a miraculous pregnancy on the aged Abraham and Sarah, declaring that, through this act, Abraham will father God’s chosen tribe on earth. This would also be consistent with Psalm 33.12: “ Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.” God then sends his angels (who are kind of early incarnations of FBI agents) to investigate matters in Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham uses this opportunity to intervene with God on behalf of the wickedness of the people there: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” he asks. It seems to me that this is the question the whole triptych asks—whether God, having made the world and having conferred on man both the blessing and the curse of free will, would destroy all of his creation in the face of human failing. This is the fundamental connection between these inner panels and the destructive flood depicted on the outer wings.

Bosch’s lesson, if there is one, seems to be that we can choose good over evil or we can be swept away. Man proposes, God disposes. Text by Dr. Sally Hickson Hieronymus Bosch Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch: Interpretation, Analysis Garden of Earthly Delights Garden of Earthly Delights (1500-05) Contents Artist: Hieronymus Bosch (14501516) Medium: Oil on wood For other great pictures, see: Famous Paintings Analyzed . Detail from Hell Interpretation of Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch This triptych is one of the most enigmatic and evocative religious paintings of the 16th century Netherlandish Renaissance . Designed in all probability as a private, moralistic, altarpiece (albeit somewhat eccentric), it consists of three hinged panel paintings filled with the most bizarre, fantastical figures and surreal creatures.

Its creator was the early Dutch master Hieronymus Bosch (14501516) - born Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken - a wealthy and highly respectable citizen of s-Hertogenbosch, from which his adopted name derives. This oil painting shows three scenes, reflecting Bosch's account of the world: Paradise on the left; Hell on the right and a garden of worldly pleasure in between. When the wing panels are folded shut, they show a grisaille picture of the Earth on the third day of Creation. Posters Fine art posters of paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, How to Appreciate Art . More Analysis of Garden of Earthly Delights Strongly influenced by the religious conventions of the day - notably the attitudes of the conservative religious group The Brotherhood of Our Lady, of which Bosch was a member - The Garden of Earthly Delights is one of Bosch's best known works - all of which depict sin and moral failing. Roughly forty surviving paintings are attributed to Bosch, though none are dated, which means that chronology is only approximate.

His other major triptychs include: The Haywain Triptych (1485-90, Prado, Madrid); The Temptation of St Anthony (1500; Portuguese Museum of Art, Lisbon); and The Last Judgment (1500s, Alte Pinakothek, Munich). During the 16th century it was widely assumed that Bosch's works were essentially works of illustration - picture books designed to illustrate Christian morals. Now, art historians attribute a deeper meaning to these original and complex works. Perhaps the most fruitful interpretation is to see them as illustrations of proverbs: the pair of lovers in the glass bubble, for instance, depicts the proverb "Pleasure is as fragile as glass". This method also helps us to make connections between The Garden of Earthly Delights and Bosch's other paintings, such as the Haywain or the Cure of Folly. Lastly, it explains similarities between Bosch's pictures and those of his artistic successor Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-69).

Pictorializes the Progression of Sin Believed to have been commissioned by a God-fearing but humanistic nobleman - such as Engelbrecht II of Nassau (d.1504) or Bernard van Orley, Henry III of Nassau-Breda (14831538) - The Garden of Earthly Delights measures about 13 feet by 7 feet when all three panels are open. The picture narrative begins on the outside shutters with the creation of the world; after the shutters are opened, the story continues, left-to-right, with the Genesis account of original sin, the proliferation of that sin during human life, and ends with images of the nightmarish penalties which the sinful can justly expect to receive in hell. Its fantastic iconography and modernistic images make it one of the greatest Renaissance paintings of the 16th century, and arguably the most inventive picture produced by Northern Renaissance artists in Flanders, Holland or Germany. Left Hand Painting: Garden of Eden The left-hand panel shows God having made Eve out of one of Adam's ribs, taken as he slept. God presents his creation to Adam, who has just woken up.

They are in the Garden of Eden, but the pool before them is full of dark, slithering creatures, hinting at a dark future. The biblical image of Paradise being an enchanted garden is given a complete make-over by Bosch. Instead of fruit trees, Bosch's Garden of Eden is full of real and imaginary creatures, lush meadows, anthropomorphic rocks, bizarre pastel-coloured rocky outcrops and strange pod-like objects. (Compare Michelangelo's Garden of Eden, painted in his Genesis Fresco - one of the great Sistine Chapel frescoes , in the Vatican.) Centre Painting: The Human World The landscape continues into the central panel of this extraordinary painting , which suggests a natural progression from one sin to many. The name of the triptych comes from the garden in this central panel, which features cavorting nudes, giant birds, oversized fruit and several strange objects or contraptions. In the background is the Fountain of Flesh, where naked women seduce male riders who circle around them. It is the sinful counterpart to the Fountain of Life in the Garden of Eden.

In general, the panel depicts mankind engaged in a range of depraved activities, all of which are clearly deemed sinful by the artist, who shows (in the right-hand panel) that they lead to the torments of hell. Symbolism is everywhere. The fruits, animals and exotic mineral structures in the background, for instance, have all been identified as erotic symbols based on popular songs, sayings and slang expressions of Bosch's era. Thus plucking fruit or flowers was a metaphor for copulation, while the peelings, which the lovers find so fascinating, was a byword for worthlessness. Curiously, the centre panel contains only young men and women: there are no children and no senior citizens to be seen. Also, the scene contains no focal point and no linear narrative, which enhances the overall mood of abandonment. Note the absence of God in this panel, which highlights what happens when mankind is given complete freedom. As we can see, under such circumstances, Bosch predicts a playground of corruption.

Right-Hand Painting: Hell In the right-hand panel, Bosch's hell (the only picture to be set at night) is divided into three levels or tiers: in the top tier, a ravaged landscape is lit by the macabre glow of an eerie fire. Huge crowds can be seen marching endlessly. In the middle level, Bosch has painted a mocking self-portrait, in the guise of a man/tree whose arms/roots are set in two boats. The hollow torso contains a sort of hellish tavern, frequented by resting 'devils'. On his head is a rotating platform with a bagpipe - a symbol of evil and lust. Two enormous ears on the left are pierced by an arrow and cut by the blade of a knife. The contraption symbolizes Man's deafness to the New Testament exhortation: "If any man have ears to listen, let him hear." In the bottom tier, the guilty are confronted by their sins. Thus personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins are made to suffer. The vain woman is doomed to stare for eternity at her reflection in a demon's rump; a glutton is forced to vomit into a pit; a miser is forced to excrete gold coins into a cesspool.

Various musicians are tortured on gigantic versions of their instruments. Similarly, a hunter is impaled by a hare, while another is devoured by his own hounds.Neither beauty nor warmth are on show anywhere in this panel: a tone which reflects Bosch's chilling view, that the guilty who have succumbed to the temptations of the devil must reap eternal damnation. Summary To sum up The Garden of Earthly Delights in one sentence, one might say it pictorializes the progression of sin, shows what would happen to Man if it wasn't for God, and offers a moral warning against the perils of temptation, notably lust. Hiernonymus Bosch (14501516) Little was known of Bosch until his name appeared in the municipal register of s-Hertogenbosch in 1474. Seven years later he married Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meervenne, 25 years his senior, whose wealth gave him the freedom to become a full-time painter. By the time he painted The Garden of Earthly Delights (1500-05), he was internationally famous.

Queen Isabella of Spain owned several examples of his religious art, while in 1504 he was awarded a prestigious commission from the Duke of Burgundy. As an artist, Bosch left a remarkable and unique legacy. Imitated by many, equalled by no one, except perhaps Pieter Bruegel the Elder , his fantastical imagery and narrative ability was to have a significant effect on the development of Surrealism in the first half of the 20th century. God bless Aleyt Goyaerts van den Meervenne!

Question: Who painted 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'?
Answer: Hieronymus Bosch